Suffering Rejection and Death

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. It's good to see each one of you here, and we welcome any visitors, first-time visitors, that's the only kind we have. [00:00:38] Welcome to Calvary. I would like you to turn in your copies of the scriptures to Luke chapter 9. We'd like to consider briefly some lessons from this passage, Luke chapter 9, beginning at verse 18. This is one of the passages of the New Testament that we could spend a great deal of time in. [00:01:10] And we have spent some emphasis on these principles before. And therefore we want to move through this as the Apostle Peter said, stirring up our minds by way of remembrance. Luke chapter 9, verse 18, came to pass as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him, and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? And the answering said, John the Baptist, but some say Elijah, and others say that one of the old prophets is risen again. [00:01:50] And he said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. And he straightly charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. And he said unto them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. [00:02:26] For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world, and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory and in his father's and of the holy angels. [00:02:58] But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God. As we look at this passage, there are two major thrusts, But I believe that they should be brought together. There is the example of the Lord, the call to his followers, and his response to obedience. [00:03:43] And as you look at this passage, it is not what we would like to think, Particularly as people of the West or particularly further people of the United States, we have this idea that if we do things right, good things will happen. Careful study of the scripture reveals that that is not necessarily true in this life. [00:04:22] You can believe right and do right, and bad things may happen. We are not in charge of our destiny. God is. That doesn't mean that we do not have a responsibility to respond to the call of God. It doesn't mean that we do not have a responsibility to turn from our sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:04:55] But it does mean that having done that and become a child of God, There is no promise given to us in this life of health and wealth. And going along with what Brother Andy said, we should be striving for the things that really matter, [00:05:26] Remember the things that cannot be bought with silver and gold. If the Lord chooses to give us silver and gold, well. But the Bible itself says in 1 Corinthians that that is not the way of most of God's children. There are a few. Most of God's children have enough, but not more. [00:06:07] And some of God's children, as we would measure it in human terms, do not have enough. As we look at the children of God across the world. Explain that I cannot, but it is true and the scripture supports it. And the call of the Lord here is for a radical discipleship with no promise of worldly gain. [00:06:46] In fact, it's nearly the opposite. As he calls the disciples, he calls them to a life of loss rather than gain. I say all this to remind us that in this time of history, Christians in general tend to unconsciously think the health and wealth gospel. [00:07:23] At the same time, they can criticize the health and wealth people, but still subconsciously there is this, if I do right, God will do right by me, and they're thinking in terms of this life. And that is not what the Word of God teaches. The Word of God calls us to surrender, to an unconditional surrender. And so the Lord speaks here, first of all, by asking a question, [00:07:54] Whom do men say that I am? And they have various answers. As you'll notice in verse 19, some talk about Him being John the Baptist, some Elijah, others, some of the other Old Testament prophets. The Lord follows up that question by asking, Who do you say I am? And Peter, speaking for the group as he often did, quick on the trigger, says, Thou art the Christ, or as Luke renders it, the Christ of God, that's who you are. [00:08:34] The anointed one of God, God the Son All of those things are inferred in the title that Peter uses The Christ of God And the Lord does not deny that In fact, if you would compare the record of the other Gospels Certainly you have the statement of the Lord that that is correct And then the Lord says, or the scripture says of the Lord, verse 21, [00:09:10] He straightly charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing. Why? Because he was not going to be in this life healthy and wealthy. He tells them that in verse 22. The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected, be slain, and be raised the third day. So what the Lord says of Himself, first of all, is that He has come to suffer, He has come to be rejected, He has come to die, and He will rise again the third day. [00:09:59] That is why He came. And it's interesting that Luke arranges the record. I don't mean fixes it or changes it. But he arranges the events here so that we can make a personal application of that. Each of the Gospel writers, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, arranges the truth for particular lessons. And those lessons are complementary from one gospel to the next. [00:10:33] But to find the full chronology, you need all four gospels, or at least the three synoptics together. And so Luke is pointing out something here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Because you'll notice in verse 23, while there may be a somewhat different audience, You have the Lord speaking to all, it says, and he talks about this same principle applied to us. [00:11:05] The Lord said, I came to suffer, I came to be rejected, I came to die, and I'm going to rise again. Now what does that mean to you? Well, it means salvation through the Lord, of course. But what does it mean for our experience? The Lord says a number of things about that in the Gospel record. The servant is not above his master. [00:11:37] If I have done these things, you should do them. He came and emptied himself of his glory, Philippians says. and we should do, we should follow that example. And so again and again you have amplified the principle that what the Lord came to do, though we are not little Christ as some people would say [00:12:09] and we cannot die vicariously as he did and so on, we're not trying to say that but as the Lord did in terms of suffering, enduring rejection even dying for the cause so should we be ready to do that's all we can expect in this life you see many people present Christianity as to expect to be healthy, wealthy and wise [00:12:39] Bible doesn't present that if the Lord chooses to bring you good health and long life It is to his glory and it is a part of his work. He may not choose that for you. And likewise with wealth, likewise with wisdom of the world. But we can be confident that what he chooses for us is best for us and to his glory. [00:13:22] and the Lord laid this out through his own life in terms of suffering, rejection and even death. I think we shortchange some people and all people that hear this from us or have it inferred That, you know, trust Jesus, you'll like him. [00:13:55] Trust Jesus, you'll make your life a great success. All of those kind of cliches that float around among some parts of evangelical Christianity today. I'm not saying we need to be downcast. I'm not saying we need to be unhappy. We should not be unhappy. We should be happy in Jesus. But more than that and deeper than that, we should be joyful in the Lord. and yet at the same time recognize that it may well be that our portion as a Christian will include suffering, [00:14:30] it will include rejection of our fellow men and it will include even death. So the Lord speaks this about himself and he doesn't want the outward glory of proclaiming himself himself as the Messiah or the disciples running around and proclaiming that because people would understand that as political deliverance, which in fact they did later. Rather, he wants them to understand what the Christian life is all about. [00:15:09] That just as he suffered, we will. Not vicariously as he did. Not for the salvation of others as he did But this world is a world of sin Under the domination of the evil one for this present time And the fact is that it will include suffering For us Maybe not all of us [00:15:41] but it will include suffering and it will include rejection of men if we stand for what we should stand for if we stand for what the Bible teaches there will be a level of rejection from the world if the world thinks you are great, watch out you are probably not who you are called to be and even death The Lord then amplifies this with this passage relating to the cross. [00:16:17] In verse 23, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Isn't that an interesting part of the context? Where the Lord has just been proclaimed as the Christ of God and then notes why he came and what was involved, what was going to be involved. And then he calls us to that same service. [00:16:51] Any man will follow me or come after me. Let him deny himself. All of the dreams that we tend in the flesh to have, Dreams of greatness and grandeur and wealth and health need to be laid at the cross, need to be given up, need to be surrendered. He goes on to say, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it. [00:17:22] If you have a great and wonderful plan for your life, and I'm not saying you shouldn't plan ahead, But if you have a great and wonderful plan for your life of greatness and grandeur and health and wealth, and you are going to accomplish that, and you are not willing to surrender that, I believe what the Lord is saying here is you cannot be a Christian. We must surrender to the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ. [00:18:02] Whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. Verse 24 Therefore, in other words, if we will live an eternal life, we will have to die. The cross is a part of that. It is not merely, and I don't want to say that, I don't want to infer that that's not important, [00:18:35] but it's not merely the cross of Christ as important as that is and it is of ultimate importance that he hung on the cross and bled and died for our sins but it is not that only but it is the cross in the life of the Christian. He calls us to the way of the cross, a way of suffering, a way of rejection, a way of death. That death is that which has to happen when we take the new life in Christ. [00:19:15] Death to ourselves, death to our selfish desires, death to our feelings of grandeur and importance and self-centeredness. But it is also something that is ongoing. So the Apostle Paul would say, I die daily. We don't get it all done. It is a progressive sort of thing. So if as you look at this passage you say, well, I don't know if I'm a Christian because I don't know if I really died permanently. Well, that's probably something all of us could say. [00:19:49] We aren't through dying yet to ourselves. Self and sin rear their heads in our lives. The very fact that that would bother you is evidence that you are a child of God. And it should bother us. And we should be able to admit the struggle. [00:20:26] So he calls us to lose our life, verse 24, for his sake, to give up all the things that we hold dear in the flesh and come in absolute and unconditional surrender to him. That is the way to save one's life. That is the way of the cross. And the logic follows in verse 25. [00:20:57] What is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? Many of you here today, if not all of you, could explain this passage. You could stand right here where I am and explain this passage. along the same line as we have attempted to explain. [00:21:29] That is not the question. The question is, are we living it? Is it real to us or merely an academic understanding of the Word of God? Those with merely academic understanding of the Word of God are going to hell. I cannot put it more lightly. That's just how it is. The devil himself has an academic understanding of the Word of God. [00:22:05] Are we living it? Is this a part of us? Are we willing to lay it all at the feet of Jesus? To give it all up and to surrender to Him? Or are we holding our little things? The illustration is given by the songwriter about the rooms of the house. And Jesus is welcome in all the rooms but one. [00:22:36] That's the room. That's the stronghold. That's where we keep him out of our lives. That is not the way of the cross. It is not the way of truth. If you're holding on to something, if I'm holding on to something, we're going to be in control of this part of our life God can have the rest that's not salvation that's not depending upon him that's not surrender so you need to ask yourself [00:23:10] and I need to ask myself is there a room in our house figuratively speaking that we have not surrendered to God Or are we willing to live what the world would call very dangerously? What the Lord calls very safely. Willing to live in full surrender to the work and will of God. [00:23:44] And sing with the songwriter, sweet will of God. Hold me now safely. The Lord will be the one who evaluates all these things. He has led and lived, suffered, was rejected, died, and rose again. We are called to the Christ life. [00:24:17] and he has a response to us. Notice it in verse 26. For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his Father's and of the holy angels. Could it be that we, many of us, have been steeped in the Holy Scriptures from little children? [00:25:00] But could it be that we, that any of us, that one of us, that two of us, that three of us, would be ashamed of Jesus? Ashamed of him. What the Lord says is that if that is the case, if we are ashamed to be a Christian, [00:25:32] ashamed to live out the life of the cross, this says, it says it quite clearly, he will be ashamed of us. when he comes in his glory. So what are we living for? Are we living for Jesus? Are we living for ourselves? There is no middle ground. [00:26:07] I call us to remembrance of the things that the Lord has said. And as the Lord may will, We will try to put verse 27 in its context in the later verses. But let us think of the example of the call of Jesus, our response, and his evaluation of our response. [00:26:41] May we pray. Thank you, Father, for your word and for the opportunity that you've given us to read it publicly and share it in these ways. And we ask that you will take this word and apply it to our hearts with the conviction of the Holy Spirit. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.